AMD's A-series "Trinity" line of APUs may have helped make the APU outsell CPUs in 2013, but it won't be long before they're replaced by the new "Richland" A-series APUs for desktops and mainstream notebooks. "Richland" is a tweaked version of "Trinity" which sees AMD stick to the 32 nm process, and retain the "Piledriver" CPU micro-architecture, but increase CPU clock speeds, add a faster DDR3-2133 MHz dual-channel IMC, and integrate a Radeon HD 8000 series Graphics CoreNext iGPU into the silicon. Desktop APU models will take up with A##-6000 series numbering scheme.

The series will be led by AMD A10-6800K, which features every component on the "Richland" silicon unlocked, which includes two "Piledriver" CPU modules amounting to four x86-64 cores, and all stream processors on the iGPU unlocked, with the highest CPU and iGPU clock speeds enabled in the lineup. The iGPU model for this chip is Radeon HD 8670D. The A10-6800K features unlocked multipliers, making overclocking a breeze. Trailing it is the A10-6700, which features all physical components unlocked, but with slightly lower clock speeds, and locked BClk multipler. It features the same iGPU as its bigger sibling, the HD 8670D.

The AMD A8-6000 series consists of the A8-6600K and A8-6500, both of which feature four CPU cores, but slightly toned down iGPU cores, labeled Radeon HD 8570D. The A8-6600K features unlocked BClk multiplier. The next APU in the lineup is the A6-6400K, which is dual-core, features a further scaled down iGPU, bearing the model number Radeon HD 8470D, and unlocked BClk multiplier. Lastly, there's the A4-6300, an entry-level dual-core APU with Radeon HD 8370D graphics. All models with -K extension feature rated TDP of 100W, others 65W.

Moving on to the platform itself, it's known that "Richland" APUs will be built in the same packages as "Trinity," and as such existing A55, A75, and A85X chipset-based motherboards should be able to run them with BIOS updates, yet AMD plans to launch a trio of new FCH chipsets. Leading the pack is the A88X (eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports), followed by A78 (six SATA 6 Gb/s ports), and A68 (probably four SATA 6 Gb/s ports, entry-level).

So we have rebadged CPUs with rebadged iGPUs and rebadged chipsets. With innovation like this it's no wonder AMD is the top CPU manufactOH WAIT.

Click to expand...

I'm going to save saying that until we see some benchmarks. I would love to see an APU consume less power and run a little faster though and we all know that the only reason the IMC is now up to 2133Mhz is because of the iGPU.

They showed these running a full 1080P tablet gaming without issues. So the thing is, its going to dominate the market when you don't need a second GPU to play games on in a netbook, or tablets that are actually capable of all the cool shit we have been sold on, and even thinner and smaller PCs.

My expectations... 11500+ marks in 3DMark06, 9000+ in Vantage Performance and 2000+ in 11 Performance... as well as all games from up to 2009 playable on 1920x1080 maxed out, no anti-aliasing at 35FPS+. All under stock clocks (& the recommended 2133MHz Dual Channel RAM).

As well as Dual Graphics (CF) between A10 Richlands and Radeon HD 7750.

Still, I want more info on the A68/A78/A88X chipsets, hope they provide better support for speedier RAM, as I've heard people buying 2400MHz kits and finding out they can only run them sub-spec.

Looking forward to building such a system for a teen buddy of mine who's single mother is pretty strapped for cash, with the proper gear... good mobo/chipset, fastest cheap RAM I can find (like the Kingston HyperX Predator 2400CL11 2x4GB kit and a CM Hyper 212 EVO... will make a pretty nice rig... I really don't want go the Intel path.

The CPU portion is the same cores and same performance per core. The GPU gets a slight upgrade from 7660D to 8000 series.......

Click to expand...

I don't think you understood what people look for. Most people don't use their laptops for anything besides web browsing, light games, microsoft office suite, etc... The other heavy processing is very rarely or never. I very rarely ever encode videos as I stream. I am sure that most people would prefer streaming hence neflix and hulu is so popular(and now amazon prime). Yes, it's great having a better CPU but I don't want to pay more for a better CPU when the current works just fine. For me and most budget minded people, that makes up the vast majority of laptop purchasers, I would rather have an average CPU with a good integrated GPU that i don't have to pay more than $20 extra for. If I wanted to game at ultra settings, I would go for desktops. So a reasonable $500 laptop with 4 Pile Driver cores will do just fine as long as it has decent graphics I can play a few light games when i'm waiting at the airport or on a train.

I bought the Y580 because it is an excellent gaming laptop for just $800. However, I ended up rarely using it besides email, web browsing and word/excel work, light games when I'm on a long wait. Real gaming is just better on desktops and much cheaper. Laptops are better for work and entertainment than real gaming. My 660gtxm in the Y580 is just a waste now that I look back. What's most important on a laptop for me and I would imagine most people would want is battery life, good graphics acceleration to play some light games and certain web pages, portability, ssd and a decent screen.

If AMD can make a laptop about $500-600 with 32GB ssd cache, enough graphics to play some fun titles at medium, a screen better than 768p, battery life rated at least 6-8 hours, and thin/light enough to carry around. Then I will gladly give up my Lenovo for it even though the Y580 has and i7 and 660gtxm.

Apparently some folks here have a reading comprehension problem... or they are just haters.

Trinity has sold extremely well in both laptop and desktop because they are excellent APUs. Richland will be better if you understand the changes listed in the story. If you don't then when the reviews come out, maybe then you'll understand? The bottom line is Trinity has been a good performing and selling product and Richland will be also.

Apparently some folks here have a reading comprehension problem... or they are just haters.

Trinity has sold extremely well in both laptop and desktop because they are excellent APUs. Richland will be better if you understand the changes listed in the story. If you don't then when the reviews come out, maybe then you'll understand? The bottom line is Trinity has been a good performing and selling product and Richland will be also.

Click to expand...

Agreed^^

We can also agree that people bought it because it was actually a good value. I don't think I've seen any sliver of marketing besides the 3 AMD display models next to 30 intel ones.